Perhaps, like me you have only encountered Hassler’s music, via the
Missa super Dixit Maria, a fairly straightforward setting along
with its motet (both recorded here) and available in cheap and cheerful
editions. You might also have come across him in various anthologies — for
example The King’s Singers Madrigals Vol. 2 — represented by quite simple
pieces like
Tanzen und springen or
Ach, weh des Leiden and
that is probably that.
Last October marked the 450
th anniversary of Hassler’s birth,
an occasion marked by an hour’s broadcast on Radio 3’s
Early Music
Show but nothing else. That is until this CD arrived earlier this year.
It seems that to some German singers, even it appears at one time to the
musical director of Mainz Cathedral, who is directing these performances,
Karsten Storck, Hassler was only really known as a madrigalist. This was as
a consequence of the popularity of the above-mentioned madrigals. The
discovery that he was a much more prolific composer of sacred works came as
something of a shock. I suppose it’s the equivalent of British musicians
discovering that the composer of
Now is the month of Maying wrote
hundreds of pieces of church music and had studied for many years under
Giovanni Gabrieli, which is exactly what Hassler did a generation before
Schütz. Indeed the style and mood of these pieces is very Italianate with
much work for double choir, brass canzonas, brass and voices and concertante
pieces. It must be said however that Hassler rarely exceeds five parts and
yet manages to create a ‘massive’ choral sound. This is generally homophonic
but with subtle counterpoint and always with interesting, moving inner
parts. Clearly however the glorious double choir
Missa Octo Vocum
is the exception.
The performances capture the spirit and temper of the music and the
acoustic of Mainz Cathedral, which is over four seconds, adds to their
impressive qualities. It is only noticeable, you will be glad to know, at
the end of each track. The music is almost unremittingly joyous and really
lifts the spirits. Hassler gets through the Glorias in extra quick time, no
doubt much to the joy of most clergy. The
Agnus dei of the
Missa Ecce Quam Bonum has only the ‘dona nobis pacem’ sung by the
choir. The first two petitions are just in plainchant. Incidentally only
three movements from each mass have been recorded omitting the
Credo, which the Mainz choir never use liturgically, and the
Sanctus.
Strangely, Hassler has no physical connection with Mainz cathedral.
Karsten Storck, who is interviewed by Jan-Geert Wolff as part of the booklet
notes, tells us that “There are over forty shelf markings” in the cathedral
archives “devoted to Hassler” and that Storck’s predecessors found Hassler’s
music useful because it “ideally suited boys’ voices”. Looking at the
striking colour photos built into the text there are an enormous number of
boy trebles in an all-male choir, many of them young men. They make a
wonderfully open and positive sound, typically continental. The choir was
founded as recently as 1866 and still sings on a weekly basis and on feast
days.
The central tracks of the CD offer a chance for the brass alone with a set
of five brief movements, presumably dances. These are described as being
“after Hassler” but are given under Italian speed terms. The most memorable
is the fourth marked
Andante cantabile.
The booklet has lavish colour photographs of the performers and of the
glorious baroque cathedral, fully translated texts and with biographical
notes. Altogether a most enjoyable disc of some glorious and under-rated
music which spans a bridge between the renaissance and the burgeoning
baroque.
Gary Higginson
.
Track-listing
1. Intrada [1.28]
2. Christ ist erstanden [1.39]
Missa Ecce quam bonum:
3. Kyrie [1.25]
4. Gloria [2.57]
5. Agnus Dei [2.11]
6. Alleluja: Laudem dicite [2.46]
7. Canzona a 6 [1.35]
Missa Octo vocum:
8. Kyrie [3.27]
9. Gloria [3.48]
10. Agnus dei [3.03]
Suite for Brass:
11. Andante maestoso [1.47]
12. Allegro moderato [1.04]
13. Andante cantabile [1.16]
14. Andante moderato [3.03]
15. Allegro [1.21]
16. Verleih uns Frieden [1.05]
Missa Super Dixit Maria:
17. Kyrie [1.55]
18. Gloria [3.35]
19. Agnus dei [1.22]
20. Motette: Dixit Maria [2.47]
21. Angelus Domini [3.20]
Missa Come fuggir:
22. Kyrie [2.41]
23. Gloria [2.45]
24. Sanctus [1.08]
25. Benedictus [1.06]
26. Agnus dei [1.53]
27. Jubilate Deo [2.04]
